Joel M Bradshaw

10So the LORD said to Moses, 11“Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.”12But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” 13But the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.–Exodus 6

1. GO AND TELL. God ordered Moses to speak.
2. I AM DEFICIENT. Uncircumcised lips meant that Moses considered his ability to speak as useless, disobedient, or disrespectful to God. He might have stuttered or pronounced things badly. We just had that circumcision episode two chapters ago!
3. BRING THEM OUT. God had no time for Moses’ excuses here.

What excuses are you telling yourself when you know God’s word is clear? Here are some examples.

1. I can’t honor God in my marriage because I have a difficult spouse.
2. I can’t share the Gospel with a friend or invite them to church because I might offend him or her.
3. I can’t be faithful in serving God now because my past is too bad.
4. I struggle too much with temptation. I’ll never change and honor God.
5. I never had someone I trusted. This keeps me from trusting God.
6. My medical or health issues make it so that I can’t be used by God.
7. God made me a certain way. I therefore am helpless to serve God in the way He expects.

Our excuses tell God that He hasn’t really thought this through. My excuses always maintained some form of hypocrisy or laziness. Do yours?–JMB